The third T. C., Troy C. Cox, grandson of SSgt T. C. Cox, told me of the path that his grandpa took after joining the Texas National Guard. He joined the Texas National Guard before 25 November 1940, in Stephenville, Texas.

Troy received some information about the last few days his grandfather was with his battalion. A copy of his file card shows:

"...your grandfather joined the Texas National Guard before November 25th
1940. That is the date they were brought into federal service, so his TNG
records would be here on post with retained records. It would only cover the
time from his enlistment to Nov. 25, 1940. Company D, 142nd Infantry was based
in Stephenville, Texas before the war.

It shows a Good Conduct Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and Purple Heart. It
shows he was KIA on December 5, 1943. From the 142bs Infantry After Action
Report for that date.

" On the 5th of December the Special Service Force reported a
strong German counterattack early in the morning on their right flank, which
was repulsed. At 1000 the 1st and 2nd
Battalion commanders (company D is 1st battalion) were informed as follows:
It is planned to move the 1st Battalion to an assembly area in the vicinity of
the southern slope of MT. LA DIFENSA under the cover of darkness tonight with
the future mission of relieving the 1st Special Service Force. Company
"I" will relieve Company "A". The positions of Company
"B" and "C" will be vacated but will be patrolled by the
2nd Battalion.

Information was then received at the Command Post that the British were on Hill
619 and had a company within four hundred yards of the monastery but did not
have their objective. At 1840 it was reported that the 1st Special Service
Force had taken hill 907 at 2000, due to enemy shelling all wire lines were out
to the 1st and 2nd Battalions, ...During the night it was estimated that one
hundred forty-five rounds of enemy fire fell on the pack trail and was quite
heavy in the valley.”

Lisa Sharik
Deputy Director

Texas Military Forces Museum

From what I’m able to read from the AAR's (After Action Reports) 142nd 1st Battalion was
conducting patrol up and down the mountain. Grandpa just missed being relieved by an
Italian Brigade according to the AAR's.

From the 1st Bn, 142nd's unit Journal:

At dawn on 3 Dec, the
142nd infantry, the Special Services Force, which was composed of American and
Canadian troops, and the British, launched an attack against German positions
in the M. Camino Mt. Maggiore hill mass, with the aid of allied artillery,
initial objectives were taken and the units participating drove on to further
objectives.

4 Dec,

Active patrols were maintained and all units were alerted for a
possible German counter-attack against forces on Mt. Maggiore which had driven
the enemy from the greater proportion of the hill mass.

5 Dec.

The company "9" outpost line was hit by German patrol
at 0300 hours. Company B opened fire and the Germans retaliated with machine
pistol and rifle grenade fire. The enemy force was unable to penetrate into the
Company B position and quickly withdrew.
On the morning of 5 Dec. Battalion Staff officers were getting instruction
regarding relief of their battalions by the 1st Italian Motorized Brigade.
Patrols returned from 1st and 3rd BN after making daylight recon of enemy
territory with info on machine gun, mortar, artillery emplacements.

6 Dec.

The 1st Italian troops to
enter as American Allies relieved the troops on Mt. Lungo that morning, 1st Bn
was not relieved until the night of 6 Dec.

Grandpa T. C. was killed on that mountain - Mt. Maggiore on 5 December
1943. "Mt. Maggiore became known as the "million dollar mountain" because of the huge amount of ammunition expended, and artillerymen called the barrage the 'Serenade to Mussolini and Hitler'". For Christmas last year my parents gave me some letters from him to
my grandmother Dot and many from her to him that have never been opened since
they sent the letters back to her after he was killed. They are still tied together with the ribbon she tied them with before putting them away. I also have the
Western Union Telegram they sent to my grandmother announcing his death.

The day T. C. died, December 5, was a Sunday after the bombings of Mt. Maggiore started on the evening of December 2. This mountain is near the community of Mignano which is about 18-20 miles southeast of Cassino, where they say T. C. was first interred. That cemetery is no longer there, because all U. S. servicemen that were not sent home for burial were moved to a U. S. military cemetery in Florence when they started re-interring the bodies in 1947. The U. S. bodies were brought down the mountain by mules, but the Italian muleskinners would not bring them down, because they thought it was bad luck to lead the mules down with dead bodies on them, so servicemen did it. If Grandpa T. C. had made it home like Mama Dot kept hoping for, the 36th was home in Texas December 1945, it would have been 2 more years of her waiting for him to come home. I think she would have gladly waited.

Homsley Reunion, Seymour, Texas

Shiloh Baptist Church in 1736 ~ Camden County, North Carolina

Original Wooden Building ~ Click on Picture to go to Camden County's Homepage.

HOMESLEY CONNECTIONS

Several of my Richards family cousins have a copy of Carrie Homesley Cunningham's book, "Historical Record of the Holmesley Family." My dad gave me his copy before he died. In Len and Greg's post, "Homsley Stories", a reader tells them how Mrs. Cunningham came to his family farm when he was a boy in Arkansas and talked to his father about genealogy and then came back, delivering her printed book by car to different families that had ordered several copies!

You'll find other gems in this wonderful article on Glenn Gabbard's ancestry which is Homesley ~ the same as mine, and Len's and Greg's.﻿